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Dessert

Hickory Nut Cake

A cake made with eggs, hickory nuts or sugar, blanched almonds, farina, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Meat and almond work together. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 486 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Hickory Nut Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  2. In another bowl, mix the egg yolks with hickory nuts or sugar until well combined.

  3. Fold in the blanched almonds, farina, and baking powder.

  4. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites until just combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Meat + almondtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together486 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Egg + meattop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,432 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Egg + almondtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whites whipped to stiff peaks trap air, lifting the cake and giving it an airy crumb.
Hickory nut meats or sugar
Provides sweetness and body to the yolk mixture, balancing the flavor of the cake.
Blanched almonds
Add fat and body, giving the cake a tender, moist texture.
Farina
Provides starch and structure that sets the batter as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air trapped in the whipped whites. Stirring vigorously deflates the batter, which leads to a dense, flat cake.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, meat):

  1. Pecansfits better
  2. Walnutfits better
  3. Peasfits about as well
  4. Almondthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, meat. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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